15 given slavery in the opening of the race, those institutions outstrip her, and a:e in the majority. Give to the slave interest an assurance of constant and permanent control of the government of the country, and occupancy of its offices, and you need have no fear of the cry of northern aggression. But if good might be accomplished by compromise, where is the hope of any such being effected. The reports from the “Peace Congress,” so called, to which so many have looked for some satisfactory result, only indicate the passage of any measure which may be agreed upon by a bare majority. Can any gentleman suppose that a plan of adjustment, endorsed and presented in this way, is to be regarded and sustained so as to dispose of existing difficulties? No, very little hope can be in compromise. Then where is it ? Certainly there is none in the passage of bills like those before us. Not at all. Then where is it ? It must be confessed there seems little hope any where. Only can it be found in standing by, striving for, and sustaining the Union under the Constitution as it is; maintaining and enforcing the laws in all sections and upon all parties. It is no time to change. If we cannot live under the Constitution as it is, if alienation of feeling, of interest, of purpose, is such as to prevent it certainly in this time of excitement, we cannot change that ' instrument with any safety. No; let us rally around it, with it determine to stand or fall, under its ruins, if it must crumble, let us be buried; let its flag be our winding sheet, and its last expiring groan the requiem sung at our burial. Taking this position, and resolute in purpose, firmly maintaining it, let us trust in God, and in a returning sense of right, of justice and of interest for a solution of all our difficulties.
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